Hong Kong police charged a prominent figure in Macau’s casino junket industry with laundering HK$1.8 billion (US$232.2 million) through bank accounts in the southern Chinese territory.
Cheung Chi-tai (張治太) is facing three separate counts of money laundering, according to a charge sheet provided by authorities yesterday.
The businessman was a major investor in publicly traded Macau junket operator Neptune Group (海王集團). Police in Hong Kong, an hour’s ferry ride from Macau, have been investigating him since November last year, when they were granted a court order freezing his assets under the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance.
Cheung has been dogged by allegations of ties to Chinese organized criminal gangs, known as triads.
The 54-year-old was named as a triad leader in a 1992 US Senate subcommittee report and in recent Hong Kong and US court cases, although he had never been charged with any related crimes.
Junkets are middlemen that arrange for wealthy mainland Chinese gamblers to travel to Macau, lend them money to gamble and then collect any debts when they return home. However, because casino debts are unenforceable on the mainland, there are suspicions that some junket operators work with organized crime to collect debts.
Macau is the only place in China where casinos are legal. However, casino revenues are slumping and junket operators are coming under increasing scrutiny amid a corruption crackdown by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
According to the charge sheet, Cheung faces three counts of “dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offense,” which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. He was released on bail of HK$200,000 and is due back in court in September.
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